Lively and Fluent

'Orpheus in the Underworld'
at London's Royal College of Music,
reviewed by ROBERT HUGILL

Opera productions at music colleges are not designed to titillate the palates of jaded reviewers. They are intended to give the students exposure to as wide a range as possible of different performance and production styles, whilst giving them the opportunity to try out a variety of repertoire. This academic year the Royal College of Music is doing two rather different operetta productions. On 1 December 2010 I attended their latest offering at the College's Britten Theatre, Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld in a production by Liam Steel, renowned for his physical theatre influenced productions. Then in the spring they will be taking a production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience to Paris; this will be directed by Donald Maxwell, thus giving the students the experience of singing G&S directed by a prime exponent...

JACQUES OFFENBACH

ROYAL COLLEGE OF MUSIC

JEREMY SAMS